In Virginia, election-day voters will determine the fate of proposed casinos in Portsmouth and Norfolk—located less than seven miles apart. Chicago-based Rush Street Gaming has a deal with the city of Portsmouth to develop a 50-acre site south of Interstate 264 at Victory Boulevard. The Pamunkey Indian Tribe in partnership with Tennessee billionaire Jon Yarbrough would build a casino on 13 acres next to Harbor Park.
One slight hitch in Portsmouth is if voters approve a casino there, Rush Street’s deal with the city gives them options to change the timeline for parts of the project if the Norfolk casino is approved. As a result, the hotel portion of the Portsmouth project, featured in promotional renderings, could be put off by several years. The agreement in Norfolk makes no reference to the Portsmouth casino or any other situations that could affect the timeline there.
The Pamunkey Tribe said its $500 million casino resort in Norfolk would offer 3,000 slots and 150 table games, plus a 300-room hotel, steak and seafood restaurant, sports bar and grill, cafe, spa and 2,500-seat entertainment venue. If the referendum passes, the tribe will purchase the land for the development. However, one slight hitch in Norfolk is, under state law, the city still would still be required to accept a much smaller development—a $300 million venue with 750 slots and 25 table games, plus a 150-room hotel, fine dining restaurant, sports bar and grill, cafe and 500-seat “intimate showroom.”
Still, in August, Pamunkey spokesman Jay Smith said the tribe is planning on the $500 million development. “Those are all assumptions that Portsmouth also passes. So if Portsmouth also passes their referendum in November, we are not going to have to scale back. It could be larger,” Smith said. But Yarbrough employee John Thompson in July said, “The Portsmouth referendum passing or not passing will have a material impact” on the ultimate investment of the Pamunkey casino resort.
In Portsmouth, Rush Street also is guaranteeing a $300 million investment for Rivers Casino, which would include a gaming floor, outdoor entertainment venue, restaurants, hotel and conference center. Details have not yet been released.
The development agreement between Portsmouth and Rush Street spells out three scenarios that would force the hotel and conference center to be built. The first states Rush Street would have to move forward on the hotel and conference center if the Norfolk referendum fails. However, if Norfolk voters pass the referendum, the casino would have to be open for a full year, and net gaming revenue for Portsmouth’s casino would have to reach $175 million in that same timeframe, for Rush Street to be obligated to build the hotel and convention center. Finally, Rush Street would have to build the hotel and conference center if Portsmouth’s net gaming revenue reaches $250 million in a 24-month period.
Portsmouth Economic Director Robert Moore said voters should realize the renderings of the casino resort depict the final product. “What they should know is that this is a phased approach. There are phases to this process and those phases could change,” Moore said, noting the first phase would include the casino, entertainment venue and restaurants.
Regarding tying parts of the agreement between Rush Street and the city to the Norfolk casino project, Moore said both parties understood market conditions would impact what’s ultimately built in Portsmouth. “We’re confident that Rush Street is the right partner and that Rush Street has done everything they need to and said they would do up until this point,” Moore said. He noted if Rush Street does not build the hotel and conference center, the city has the option to bring in another developer after the casino has been open for four years.
Back in Norfolk, it was learned the Cordish Companies of Baltimore have been secretly backing the Vote No Norfolk Casino Group. Cordish, which operates the Waterside District in Norfolk, earlier this year threatened to sue the city over its casino development agreement with the Pamunkey Indian Tribe. Cordish has said it wants to operate its own casino at Waterside, not far from the proposed Pamunkey casino site.
In a statement, Cordish said the development deal “is not in the best interest of Norfolk or its citizens.” The statement repeated the Vote No Casino group’s concerns about how the tribe was selected as the city’s casino operator, environmental issues at the site and the location of the proposed casino.
The tribe and Yarbrough created their own pro-casino citizen group last year, All In for Norfolk Casino.
